With nearly two decades of experience developing digital health infrastructure, Estonia is paving the way for other countries with its expertise. In Estonia, 99% of health data – including secure e-health records, e-prescriptions, medical images, and registration – is digital. Companies such as Nortal, Dermtest, and Icosagen are at the forefront of this sector.

Estonian companies have improved various aspects of healthcare by building the most comprehensive digital health ecosystems and secure health data exchange infrastructures for countries, hospital networks, medical registries, insurance providers, professionals, and patients.

Digital health records and a population-based biobank have provided extensive data for research and development, laying the foundation for various personalised health solutions. The outcomes have been transformed into proven and practical applications.

But the Estonian healthtech sector goes beyond digital, merging with biotech. As a top-ranking education nation with strong collaboration between universities, research organisations, the public sector, and enterprises, Estonia is constantly aiming for scientific excellence. These three companies are excellent examples of innovative health technology firms.

Dermtest innovates dermatology with smart photo management

Dermtest offers a comprehensive digital toolbox for managing skin conditions and complex skin diseases, revolutionizing dermatological care. It is a comprehensive platform for handling medical photographs to enhance accessibility, efficiency and accuracy of diagnosing, and remote monitoring.

Dermtest’s digital toolbox provides value to healthcare institutions, from general practitioners to hospitals to at-home nurses—all parties that require photographing skin conditions and securely sharing data among providers.

GOOD TO KNOW
Dermatological conditions take the top 4 spots in disease burden among non-fatal diseases globally, with 15–30% of all primary visits being for skin conditions. Visual-first solutions radically change dermatology amid scarce resources and evolving needs.

„Humans perceive information visually. It is natural. We must shift healthcare away from text-based documentation to visual documentation. This saves time, reduces clinician stress and enables new life-improving care models in many clinical areas,“ said Priit Kruus, CEO of Dermtest.

Dermtest’s smart teledermatology technology can be used to ease the detection of melanoma, or treatment of psoriasis, wounds, allergies, ulcers, eye conditions, as well as for aesthetic medicine – on all levels from individual providers to government levels.

The world’s largest teledermatoscopy study using Dermtest data indicates 95,5% accuracy of teledermatoscopy in detecting skin cancer, another study on psoriasis showed significant improvement in reported quality of life. Dermtest’s solutions are used by 90 institutions in Estonia and Germany, supported by national insurance codes, ensuring widespread easy adoption, and significant clinical benefits.

FACTS
Founded: in 2013, CEO Priit Kruus
Sector: Healthcare
Employees: 10
Location: Estonia, with operations in Germany (GmbH)
Main export markets: Europe
Examples of collaborations: BKK-VBU, IVM Plus, Estonian Health Insurance Fund, B. Braun
Membership: BVDD Digi Derma Campus, DTx Estonia, Health Founders, Tehnopol Healthtech
visualfirst.dermtest.com

Nortal is revolutionising global healthcare with proven solutions

Nortal pioneers healthcare transformations, enhancing experiences for patients, doctors, administrators, and officials worldwide. With two decades of expertise, Nortal guides governments in setting health policy goals, developing national health records and e-health services such as e-prescription systems, and innovating hospital information systems. Their solutions optimise care and diagnostic processes, elevating healthcare standards globally.

“Nortal has reshaped the healthcare industry with innovative solutions that enhance efficiency, accessibility, and quality of care. In this industry, improving products and services has tremendous value, for it shapes the future of our biggest treasure – health,” said Kertti Merimaa VP of Healthcare at Nortal.

GOOD TO KNOW
Read this article in German.

Governments, healthcare providers and businesses around the world have relied on Nortal’s strategic management consultations and engineering capabilities to securely manage delicate information and streamline processes, improving healthcare outcomes and fulfilling evolving needs amid resource constraints.

They take ownership of the client’s challenge’s lifecycle, supporting them through strategy and vision building, service design, software engineering and implementation, and supporting change management.

They have a track record of improving quality and efficiency of digital healthcare services for both governments and businesses. Nortal has developed Estonia’s National Health Record and leading hospital information system, and healthcare e-service development projects in Finland, Germany, UAE, MEA regioon and the Baltics. Their experience varies from building the National Health Record of Lithuania, safe data Exchange infrastructure for German medical registries and an AI powered resource management system for Finnish hospitals.

Recently, at the beginning of November, Nortal won the Exporter of the Year award at the Enterprise Awards.

FACTS
Founded: 2000 by Priit Alamae, Priit Järv, and Linnar Viik
Sector: IT, specialising in digital transformation, software development, and consultancy
Employees: Over 2300 globally
Location: HQ in Tallinn, Estonia, with 26 offices across Europe, North America, and the GCC region
Main export markets: Across Europe, North America, and GCC region
Customer base: The government of Estonia, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, Tartu University Hospital, Sultanate of Oman and many other public, healthcare and enterprise sector clients
Memberships: Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, etc.
nortal.com

FACTS ABOUT ESTONIA

#1 Estonia is the leading country in digital health by the Bertelsmann Foundation’s Digital Health Index 2024.
99% of health data created today is digitised in Estonia and all individuals have an e-health record.​
20 years of experience implementing the national e-health infrastructure.
20% of adult individuals’ genome data is collected by the Estonian Genome Centre, making the extensive population-based biobank a powerful resource for personalised health and prevention.

Icosagen: a leading provider of comprehensive biopharmaceutical solutions

Icosagen addresses high unmet medical needs by offering comprehensive solutions for biopharmaceutical development. Icosagen’s capabilities cover the full spectrum of development, from target identification, to contract research in all phases of drug development, to pharmaceutical and GMP manufacturing.

The company is able to effectively fulfill the research and development needs of the world’s largest pharmaceuticals and biotech companies. Icosagen’s contract research service relieves pharmaceutical companies of the high cost, risk and complexity of managing an in-house research and development department. Icosagen leverages a diverse range of proprietary and patented technologies, providing a unique end-to-end solution for biopharmaceutical development.

“Scientific excellence is the core of Icosagen. Our goal is that our research is directly translated into innovative technologies and drug candidates, improving the lives of millions of people with diseases, from autoimmune conditions to cancer,” said Mart Ustav Jr, Chief Scientific Officer at Icosagen.

Icosagen has expanded its global presence and contributed significantly to advancements in biopharmaceutical research and development. In 2023, Icosagen partnered with 100+ pharma and biotech companies, and succeeded in 546 projects.

FACTS
Founded: Quattromed in 1999, Quattromed Cell Factory in 2005, renamed Icosagen in 2009. Founder Prof. Mart Ustav
Sector: HealthTech, biotechnology
Turnover: 20.5 million
Employees: 200+
Location: Tartu, Estonia; with office in San Francisco, USA
Main export markets: EU, Switzerland, UK, USA, Japan
Customer base: Many of the world’s largest pharmaceuticals and Biotech companies
Accolades: Company of the year and top 1 innovator in 2023 in Estonia
www.icosagen.com

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